Their single “Time Is on My Side” reached #6 on the US charts and the group decided to return to America. However, in October of that same year, sales of The Rolling Stones’ records started to pick up. When we arrived, we didn’t have a hit record or anything going for us.” As Stones bassist Bill Wyman put it, “ a disaster. American teens were still under the spell of “Beatlemania,” and The Rolling Stones’ tour attracted little fanfare. Unlike The Beatles, who waited until they had a Number One hit before invading America, The Stones arrived stateside in 1964 with few record sales. The following year, having released multiple singles and a self-titled album, The Rolling Stones set off on a US tour. On the road with a number of their musical idols, The Rolling Stones shaped and refined the stage act for which they would later become famous. The Stones were able to parlay that success with a booking as a supporting act on a 1963 UK tour featuring Bo Diddley, Little Richard and The Everly Brothers. Their first single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On,” was a moderate success reaching #21 on the UK charts. Coincidently, it was George Harrison who recommended the record label take a look at the band. In 1963 Decca Records, which had recently made the regrettable and costly mistake of not signing The Beatles when given the chance, jumped at the opportunity to sign The Stones. The Rolling Stones became an established act in the greater London club scene. Known as “Swinging London,” its fashion and music went through a renaissance, and the popularity of the blues and other styles of music grew tremendously. With the Beatles garnering international fame, London was undergoing a social revolution. Influenced by artists like Bo Diddley and Willie Dixon, the band played a mix of Chicago blues and R&B. Needing to have a band name for the ad, Jones saw a Muddy Waters album lying on the floor and picked the track titled, “Rollin’ Stone.” The band later tweaked the name to The Rolling Stones. The band’s name was rumored to have been chosen when Brian Jones placed an advertisement for a show in a jazz periodical. By December 1962, the lineup was complete with vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones, pianist Ian Stewart, bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts. They assembled the other members of the band while playing in London blues clubs. With a mutual adoration of R&B performers like Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, Jagger and Richards began listening to American music and then playing it together regularly. The Rolling Stones’ story began in 1960 when childhood friends Mick Jagger and Keith Richards bumped into one another while attending different colleges in London, England. The Stones brooding blues-rock music and aggressive lyrics paired with lead singer Mick Jagger’s charisma and sexually charged onstage act pushed cultural boundaries and forever changed popular music. He saw the long-term benefit in molding the group’s image to be opposite that of The Beatles. When The Rolling Stones arrived for their first tour in the USA, headlines read, “Would You Let Your Daughter Marry a Rolling Stone?” Their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was a gifted promoter and publicity shaper. Where The Beatles tried to avoided controversy, The Rolling Stones seemed to revel in it. While The Beatles were cute and beloved by teenagers and their mothers, The Rolling Stones were wild, edgy and somewhat threatening. The Beatles on Ed Sullivan started the British Invasion, and The Stones elevated it. Known as “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” The Rolling Stones have been the bad boys of Rock ‘n’ Roll for five decades.
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